Underground Church

A Living Example of the Church in Its Most Potent Form

By: Brian Sanders, Alan Hirsch - introduction

Narrated by: Mark Smeby, Gabe Wicks

What If the Church Truly Empowered People to Engage in God's Mission?

Something extraordinary has been happening in Tampa, Florida. A new expression of the church has been quietly growing. It's something of an experiment, but over the last ten years the church has been validating its ideas with sustained and growing results. At The Underground, being the church is not focused around a weekly gathering or church programs. It's about empowering individuals to respond to God's call to ministry and mission, especially to the poor and disadvantaged in our midst.

While many churches talk about discerning calling and engaging in mission, very few are structured to make this their ministry focus. Underground Church is a new vision for the church rooted in its biblical mission to share the love of God and serve the poor. Sanders explores how to make structural changes, how to think about leadership, how to fund ministries, and how to truly engage people in God's mission. Filled with creative insights, he explains what it means to center the mission of the church around the callings of individuals to outward ministry - whether that involves leading Bible studies in the workplace, feeding the homeless, or working to free women and children from sex trafficking.

This book will both tell the inspiring story of a church that is rethinking what church looks like while also outlining and uncovering the principles that transfer for every church and Christian community that hopes for more. It's the true story of a 10-year experiment that unpacks the possibilities of a church structured and streamlined for mission.

Additional illustrations, charts, and The Underground manifesto are available through the audiobook companion PDF download.

Imagine

Sanders, in sharing his journey, passions, and insights, with tender candor, creatively reframes an unleashing of the Church.
I thought this book was a "how to". I could use one.
It was and wasn't. It is permission to imagine. it is permission to dream... ...with God... ..and other apprentices of Christ.
If the Bride's health concerns you, then you know her habits will have to change. Imagine how.

Great book, but I’m torn

The book was well written, easy to listen to, and follow the path that made sense. The narration was very good with a lot of emotion.

However I am a little torn with the content itself. There are some things the author says about the church in Christianity that thrilled me, and other things that I’m not so sure about. Thankfully after listening to the whole book, I realized that the author is humbly writing about his experiences and actually INVITING someone to build on them or even challenge them. Too many books like this are written simply as a pridefully innovative way to revamp God’s church. That was not this.

Encouraging

May we see more of the "underground church" breaking through. Praying unity for multiplying this model be manifested all over this continent.

Paradigm Shift

The book was my first auditable. I was informative and filled with useable ideas. Enjoy.

Provocative and inspiring

This book is a story. In a way it's like the book of Acts. It's the story of what God did through his church in that time; so it is with this book.

Brian is a very intelligent writer and he leaves us with a very transparent and vulnerable retelling of his journey.